Kin of victim in church killings arrested

A relative of a woman killed in a notorious church shooting in Lynbrook will undergo psychiatric evaluation after, police say, he harassed people there, including a reverend and a nun.

On two days last week, Nassau officials said, Victor Tosner, 57, called secretaries at Our Lady of Peace Church, verbally threatened a nun, and was spotted on church property. He also gave greeting cards bearing the date of the 2002 shooting to parish employees, police allege.

Tosner, who a legal aide attorney said was a onetime maintenance worker, pleaded not guilty in a Hempstead court to stalking and harassment following his Thursday night arrest.

A Nassau judge Friday ordered him held without bail pending a psychiatric evaluation. Tosner was also ordered to stay away from the church, church pastor William Breslawski and three others.

Breslawski previously had an order of protection against Tosner after an allegation of harassment in 2009, the Nassau district attorney's office said.

Tosner was at Our Lady of Peace Church in 2002 with his aunt, Eileen Tosner, 73, when a gunman entered, fatally shooting her and the Rev. Lawrence Penzes, 50.

"Our Lady of Peace Parish and the Diocese of Rockville Centre are working closely with law enforcement and civil authorities to address the situation involving Victor Tosner and will continue to do so as long as is warranted," diocese spokesman Sean Dolan said in a statement.

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A person who answered the phone at the church Friday said no one there wished to comment. One of the complainants, Barbara Vensky of Lynbrook, said she didn't know if Tosner was a threat to anyone and declined to comment further.

Tosner is due back in court Wednesday. Calls to his Lynbrook home were not answered.

On March 12, 2002, Peter Troy slipped into the back of the church and fired six shots from a .22-caliber rifle, killing Penzes and Tosner, a mother of five.

A parishioner tackled Troy, but he escaped and barricaded himself in a nearby house where he had rented a room. Troy was later arrested, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

With Bart Jones